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Petit Timbales a LA Russe

Small butter timbales coated in breadcrumbs, fried, and filled with game, poultry, or oysters.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Petit Timbales a LA Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the timbales

  1. Work out the whey from the butter.

  2. Shape the butter into a square about 3 inches thick.

  3. Use a small patty cutter dipped in water to cut out pieces from the butter.

  4. Roll the pieces in fine bread crumbs to shape them well.

  5. Beat the eggs.

  6. Brush the beaten eggs over the butter pieces.

  7. Roll the pieces again in crumbs.

  8. Place the pieces upright on a dish sprinkled with bread crumbs.

  9. Use a smaller cutter dipped in hot water to make an opening at the top of each piece.

  10. Keep the timbales in a cool place until ready to fry.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the timbales in hot lard.

  2. Turn them over to drain excess butter on a sieve.

  3. Fry two or three at a time until golden brown.

  4. Fill the fried timbales with a puree of game, poultry, or oysters.

  5. Dish them on a napkin.

  6. Garnish with fried parsley.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + oystertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,184 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  3. Bread + oystertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,545 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + oystertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,103 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Forms the solid shell, and its fat melts during frying to give richness.
Eggs
Beaten eggs act as a binder so the bread crumbs adhere to the butter pieces.
Fine bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating that holds the shape during frying.

The step that matters

Keep the timbales cool before frying. Butter shapes must stay firm; if they soften, they lose their form and may leak butter into the hot lard, so they should be chilled until just before frying.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, bread, oyster):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Capersfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Tarragonfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, bread, oyster. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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